


Mutuality

by the_blue_fairie



Category: The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25198507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_blue_fairie/pseuds/the_blue_fairie
Summary: A very short piece about Clare and Billy from Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale.
Relationships: Clare & Billy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Mutuality

Aidan’s hands were warm in the golden glow.

(They had… found each other.)

(In this street-ash-bow-your-head-swallow-your-sobs-there's-a-war-on world… their fingers had twined.)

(You'll be murdered in your bed... but not by...)

Lullaby singsong drifts to music box whisperings.

Aidan’s hands are cold.

Shadow-coils wind about his hands like river grass strangling a pallid corpse washed ashore…

The hand-clasp becomes a death-clench – vacant eyes – blood spidering from grey husk-head…

Billy’s hands are warm.

(They had… found each other.)

Billy’s blood is warm… hot against his side…

Clare holds on to him, will not let him go.

Aidan fell with her pinned, sobbing, unable to –

She can reach out to Billy. He leans against her as they stumble.

His blood is wet against her. His wounds mingle with her own – not like the the spider-crawl of Aidan's blood or the wreathing smoke of horrors –

_(We're all alright.)_

– but like the mingling of the golden sphere with the gold-blue crest of the sea...

At the sunrise, they are side by side.


End file.
